Abbotsford bloom tulip festival engagement

Blooms Best couple portrait Winner Award

Abbotsford bloom tulip festival engagement shoot with R+O was a fun evening experience. There is so many great places to have pre wedding engagement portraits photographed around Vancouver. For me this was the first time I had chance to create this story at tulip festival. You think flowers and you imagine sunshine am I right? Well, there was none the day we were there. Instead we got cloudy overcast day to work with.

Abbotsford bloom tulip festival is a very popular event. Thousands of visitors arrive here each year and they love it. To photograph a genuine lifestyle engagement is not an easy task here. Here is couple tips for you how to eliminate crowds and what to know.

Abbotsford bloom tulip festival Tips.

Avoid weekends at any costs. Hundreds of people wants have weekend walk somewhere pretty and this place it picturesque. Crowds of families with children stroll around here and love. Elderly come here to soak the senses in colours and smells of flowers and they love it too. Couples in love like you come here as well. Simply put this place has such an influence that even randomly passing car drivers on highway will make an unplanned stop here. Busy is underestimate for weekends here. So for creativity weekdays will do way better.

Even on weekdays come 2 hours before they close the gate for the day. If you are a photographer then you know the light is getting better just before the sunset for portraits. But also the hungry crowds are slowly giving up and leaving home for dinners. Yes crowds. During weekdays there is less visitors here but still the number can be overwhelming.

Scout and walk through the fields of tulips to plan your shoot based on sun position and where people are. For me it is all about light. If the light is not good enough for the style of story I want to create then I fabricate my own. So using natural light is great here. Soft evening shadows, vibrant colours of fields and 3D backgrounds glowing from sunset are a dream to work with. But, not in our case since we did not get any sunset at all.

What camera gear to use here.

So it comes to choosing where to start the story and where to walk from there trying to be able not to have anyone else around couple who just want to chill and have eyes for each other. For me that means long lenses. Isolating them from anyone else who might be close by was very important.

But you need wide angle scenic images from here sooner or later so how to use a super wide lenses not to reveal there is another 145 moms taking iPhone snaps of these blossoms around you? Well get low and hide people behind flowers if you can. Or even get high and shoot down so the  blossoms become your painted canvas for image.

Create layers or lighting with flashes. Make those colours pop and create mood which helps the story.

Do not overthink it. The goal is that you have great time and enjoy each other. The technical part should not take away from experience you have. My silent Nikon Z6 mirrorless camera shoots so quietly that nothing interrupts you to be there for each other.

The Story in images.

Here is a set of images I chosen to showcase R+O story form this day. We have stayed almost 2 hours in here until we were completely last to leave in complete darkness. They loved it and so did I. I have been surprised with a message from organizers that our image won the first place in couples portraits category. I know R+O had a blast at this shoot and can you imagine how happy they were to share this news with friends? Priceless.

If you are planning and engagement or lifestyle shoot at Tulip festival in 2020 then I would love to hear from you. Simply fill in my contact form and who knows you might be up for something unique too.

Thank you for reaching out.

Cheers. Jozef